New Jersey was the only British colony to permit the establishment of two colleges in the colonial period. Princeton University, chartered in 1746 as the College of New Jersey, and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, chartered on November 10, 1766 as Queen's College, were two of nine colleges founded before the American Revolution.[2][3][4]:passim. In the 1860s, these two colleges competed to become the state's land grant college under the terms of the Morrill Act of 1862 which provided land and funding to expand development of engineering, scientific, agricultural, and military education at one school in each state. Rutgers received the designation in 1864 began to expand instruction in these areas and taking on a hybrid private-public role that paved the way for its transformation into a state university in 1945. Today, Rutgers is a large publicresearch university serving over 65,000 students. Princeton remained a private college and developed into a research university that is one of the nation's eight prestigious Ivy League schools.

On August 22, 2012, the New Jersey governor Chris Christie signed into law the New Jersey Medical and Health Science Education Restructuring Act which divided the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) between Rutgers and Rowan University, creating two public medical schools.[5][6] According to The Star-Ledger, the law gave Rutgers "nearly all of UMDNJ—including its medical schools in Newark and Piscataway—in one of the greatest expansions in the state university’s history" and southern New Jersey's Rowan University would "take over UMDNJ’s osteopathic medical school in Stratford."[7]

New Jersey has a system of 19 publiccommunity colleges at the county level statewide. This reflects the fact that each college serves one of New Jersey's 21 counties, except for Atlantic Cape Community College and Raritan Valley Community College, each of which serves two counties. In 1989, the New Jersey Council of County Colleges was created to promote the advancement of the state's county community colleges. In 2003, governorJames McGreevey created the New Jersey Community Colleges Compact, through Executive Order No. 81, as a statewide partnership to enable cooperation between the colleges and various state departments. The county colleges of New Jersey represent 56% of all undergraduate students in the state and offer studies in associate degree and certificate programs. Reflecting long-term trends nationwide, the male-to-female ratio of students in the system is 41% male to 59% female, and 48% of students are over the age of 24. Overall, the system enrolls more than 350,000 students each year on campuses that range in size from 1,300 students at Salem Community College to over 15,000 students at Bergen Community College.

Not all of the county colleges were founded by the State of New Jersey; the oldest county college in New Jersey, Union County College, was founded in 1933 by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration as Union County Junior College; it operated as a private college from 1936 to 1982, and merged with the publicly operated Union County Technical Institute in 1982 to become the current public institution.[14]

Oldest seminary in the United States, founded as Dutch Reformed seminary in New York City, moved to New Brunswick in 1810, run jointly and shared facilities with Queen's College, later Rutgers College, until 1856.

^as a for-profit institution without a traditional academic residency or campus, DeVry offers courses nationwide through online instruction and distance learning. This number does not reflect students in residence on a campus or enrolled for classes in New Jersey.

^as a for-profit institution without a traditional academic residency or campus, Strayer, based in Washington DC, offers courses nationwide through online instruction and distance learning. This number does not reflect students in residence on a campus or enrolled for classes in New Jersey.[21]